PhonePe launches Indus Appstore

Vijay C Roy

New Delhi, February 21

The competition in the app store market is likely to get stiff in near future as Walmart-backed PhonePe today announced the launch of its Indus Appstore.

With this initiative, PhonePe is attempting at creating a more competitive and localised mobile app store economy for India. Appstore allows Indian consumers to download over two lakh mobile apps and games across 45 categories. Users will be able to discover these apps conveniently in 12 Indian languages. There are around 300 app stores across the globe with Google Play Store and Apple App Store dominating the market.

Unlike other stores, Appstore is offering zero listing fee to developers for one year. Also, in a global first move, Appstore allows app and game developers to choose any third-party payment gateway for in-app billing, and they will not be charged any commission if they use an external payment gateway. At a later date, Indus will also provide its own in-app billing and catalog solutions, but these will remain strictly optional for app developers.

Sameer Nigam, CEO and Founder PhonePe added, “Indus Appstore challenges the status quo, ushering in an era of more healthy competition in the mobile app marketplace, which in turn should help create a more democratic and vibrant Indian digital ecosystem.”